Creating A Photo Picture Book with Toddlers

This lesson plan will bring joy to any child as you take pictures, develop them and display them in their very own personalized book. This book can hold snapshots of anything they love and they will be happy when you read it to them over and over again!

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Photography and Our Lives

Creating a photo picture book with toddlers can be fun and help to spark creativity. The photo of someone whom you love or something that you adore can bring joy to anyone. The photos that line our living areas such as bedroom night stands, book shelves and even entertainment stands allow us to look into the 'face of love' anytime we want. Because actually being with someone every minute of the day is truly impossible.

There are some of us who enjoy taking photographs for a hobby or even as a chosen profession. Those who take photos as a career or hobby are actually gifted in their skill, but for all, it takes some natural talent. You may see that glint in the eyes of a toddler you know who leaps in excitement when they see the opportunity to have their picture taken.

Well, if you want to help your preschooler get a jumpstart on their picture-taking skills along with learning how to come up with a concept of a project and see it through its fruition. You can help them create a book of photographs of their very favorite things, whatever they may be. This toddler lesson plan will light up the eyes of any toddler knowing they helped create their own book.

The first thing you would need to do is ask what would they want as a theme for their book. It could be a book of their favorite toys, a park that they like, a favorite restaurant or child's venue, an event or more importantly, their family.

Once you have a theme, you are ready to start taking pictures. Let's say for the sake of this article it is a book of their favorite park and you go to the park with them that day to start taking photos. You are at the park and you take snapshots of them on the slide, in the swing and even blowing bubbles. If a neighbor and their child shows up, take a few pictures of the kids playing together as well.

Now, you are all set with your photos and you are ready to get them developed or if you have a digital camera, upload the photos to your computer. You will want to crop and select various sizes for each photo. Your next step is to gather the materials to make the book.

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Making the Book

The materials:

construction paper

markers or crayons

glue

nice wide ribbon

3-ring hole puncher

Instructions:

1). Cut the construction paper within an inch or so around the photos

2). Use the hole puncher to create either two or three holes in the paper, depending on how it was cut

3). Glue the photos in the center of each page and allow your child to decorate around the photo with stickers or their own drawings

4). (Optional) You can go to your local print shop and laminate each page, for safe keeping

5). Now line up the pages as you would like to tell the story and tie the ribbon through the punched holes

This book, especially if laminated, can last for a long time. If you used text or captions under your photos, that is even better. As they grow, they will learn to read the words that you wrote, when you helped them create their first photo book.